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A Call to the Catholic Church It is painfully clear that with each passing day the U.S. occupation of Iraq means more death and suffering for the Iraqi people and U.S. soldiers and their families. Thus, compelled by my faith in Jesus and my love for the universal Body of Christ, I make the following appeal: It is time for our church to repent for our complicity in the sin of U.S. warmaking in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is time for all Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Religious and Laity to speak with a clear and prophetic voice and call for an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. soldiers, intelligence personnel and private contractors from Iraq and Afghanistan. It is time to call for a cutoff of all war funding and to close all U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is time to call on all soldiers, our brothers and sisters, to refuse orders to fight and kill, and to actively support all military refusers and conscientious objectors. (Hundreds have signed “Refuse to Fight-Refuse to Kill” statement. See www.jonahhouse.org) It is time for the U.S. to make reparations to Iraq and to call for a “surge” in reconstruction funds for Iraq and Afghanistan, with a special proviso that no U.S. contractor profit from such reconstruction. It is also time to investigate and demand the dissolution of Blackwater, the secret U.S.-hired mercenary force in Iraq. It is time for Catholics and for all people of faith to renounce the administration’s “long-war” plan, policies of preemptive/ preventive warmaking, and U.S. aspirations of empire and global domination. It is time to demand an end to U.S. threats to destabilize Iran. It is time to dismantle the entire U.S. nuclear stockpile as an example to the world that we are serious about nuclear proliferation and nuclear abolition. It is time to condemn as morally reprehensible the sin of torture, call for the repeal of the Military Commissions Act and the closing of the Guantanamo U.S. military prison, and all other secret U.S. torture and detention centers. It is time to call for a just peace in the Middle East and ending the U.S.-backed Israeli occupation of Palestine, the root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is time to acknowledge our addiction to oil, simplify our lifestyle and commit ourselves to reversing the global climate crisis so that our planet will survive. It is time for all Catholics and Christians to take a “Vow of Nonviolence.” Art Laffin Excerpt from The Little Way, summer 2007, publication of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, 503 Rock Creek Church Rd, NW Washington, DC 20010 |